Goose Island Sahti

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip with a frothy, initially fat-one-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The beer is a murky, pale amber color that shows an opaque, bright, straw gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is interesting, with an herbal, almost pine like character that must be juniper. Other aromas of grassy grain, fresh crushed malt, perhaps a hint of soapiness and even a hint of light tartness in the finish. An interesting, somewhat, hearty aroma. I definitely like the mix of hearty grain aromatics, light spiciness and hint of tartness that is found in the aroma.

The taste is lightly malty up front, but then picks up a definite tartness that is lactic in character. This lactic tartness makes this quite thirst quenching. There is a touch of a woody note and astringency to the finish. Grassy malt notes and some savory grain character are noticeable up front and a cracker-like grain note tends to linger on in the finish. This beer is quite dry, but still has quite a bit of body to it; it has a certain viscous character to it and a palate fullness, neither of which keep this from being quite quaffable. The juniper spicing is more subtle in the flavor than it is in the aroma (and it is fairly subtle there too), in the flavor it sort of adds a subtle spiciness that is just barely evocative of pine and some sort of berries.

My wife just tried some of this and reminded me that I have had this on tap at Goose Island Clyborne 6 to 7 or so years ago; the juniper character was more fresh then, and there wasn't any real tartness to that beer (if my memory isn't failing me). Still I like the extra tartness in this beer, it is a nice, clean sourness and it goes well with the rest of the beers character. Perhaps not the most complex of beers, but it is certainly tasty enough; this would definitely be a great hot weather beer.